The existential crisis continues...

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I woke up about 2am with a plan of action in mind.
Jot down a bunch of targets, and a bunch of features, then cross off things that can or can't work on those targets.


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The list contains such amazing revelations as "Can't make a twin-stick shooter on an Amstrad CPC" and "It's getting harder to release games for Windows"
Glancing through the list, there's one or two targets that are sticking out as possibilities.

SmileBASIC and OUYA..
Hmm..

Note : By OUYA, I mean "things that will run on OUYA, but also most other Android devices with gamepads attached"

In both of those cases, I think a redo-from-start would be in order. I really quite enjoyed making that iOS framework the other week, so that might be fun.
If I did it in SmileBASIC, I'd still be limited to plinky-plunky JMTrackr style sounds, whilst OUYA would let me use up some of those ALChoons I've been building up.

The biggest issue for an OUYA target would be setting up the dev-kit. Especially on MacOS. I can't imagine that'd be easy in the slightest.
Plus, I'd likely have to learn a whole new language, too. Either that or try to get Monkey up and running again. Yikes!

On the other hand, if I write games for SmileBASIC, would "SmileBASIC 4" still be a thing once the new "Switch 2 or whatever" launches, or will I have to start again with SmileBASIC 5..?
Hmmm..

What would YOU like me to target?
Or should I bulk up my Webdev'ing skills to another level?
.. That might probably work better, if I'm honest.

I sure would love to make a twin-stick shooter, though.

Meanwhile...

Yesterday, to take my mind off things, I opted to try a complete and total rebuild of the VidGen tool.

It took most of a day to get the "FFT" maths stuff to work, but the basic framework seems stable enough. The fact that I've now done a "pre-FFT" enables a much more crisp and clean set of data points, and the output is a much truer-looking spectrum analysis of the audio.

Take this example.. Sweep.mp3
If you load it into the old VidGen, you get output that looks like this.



The frequencies are all over the bloomin' place, and it's not very clean at all.
Compare it to the new engine, and..



Crisp, clean, and rather sharp, too.
The main issue now is syncing up the data with the audio, since different browsers have things happen at slightly different times.
I also now have to rewrite all those visual styles to work with the new engine, too, as well as rewriting the capture functionality and that's before I can add any new stuff into the mix..
Bugger!!!

But, hey, at least it's something to keep me occupied, right!?!


You can test VidGen v2 here.
Let me know if it's in sync on your device!!
Oh yeah, you need to hold down on the timeline to play audio.. I haven't added a normal play button yet!!


"Cartoon @Derek doesn't know which of his many computers he should be working on, today. Confusion, unknown, technology" by #ArtFlow.ai